By JIM HINCH
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
6/2/2013
For many election cycles, the Arab American Caucus of the California Democratic Party gathered in small conference rooms at party conventions, listened to speeches, made a few endorsements, and went home.
This year, something different happened. "The room was
packed," said Rashad Al-Dabbagh of Anaheim, who attended the state party
convention in April as a member of the Arab caucus.
Seventy people crammed two rooms at the Sacramento
Convention Center for the caucus' Saturday evening meeting on April 13,
including a record 28 Muslims recently elected as state party delegates.
Women in hijabs were seen wandering the convention floor,
often stopped by state party officials "asking, 'How can we help
you?'" recalled Hussam Ayloush, one of the recently elected delegates.
So many people wanted to become leaders of the caucus that,
for the first time in memory, the election for leadership positions was
contested.
And two Muslim members of the caucus, the recently elected
mayor of the city of Bell and a school board member in Anaheim, actually held
public office, another first.
The meeting, said Al-Dabbagh, was visible proof that
California's Muslim community, a political sleeping giant, is beginning to
awaken.
"The community is beginning... to find its political
voice," said Al-Dabbagh, an activist who has worked for several Orange
County political campaigns. "It will find its place. It's just a matter of
time."
Islam is America's fastest growing faith, with the number of
Muslims more than doubling since 2000, according to the 2010 U.S. Religion
Census, a decennial survey conducted by an ecumenical coalition of religious
statisticians. As many as 12 million Americans identify themselves as Muslim,
according to different estimates.
Yet, until recently, Muslims were also the least politically
active faith community. Only 65 percent of American Muslims are registered to
vote, compared with 91 percent of Protestants and Jews, according to a 2011
Gallup poll.
First-generation Muslim immigrants often come from countries
with autocratic governments where political participation is either discouraged
or considered pointless or even dangerous.
"You're not ever going to change anything," Rohnda
Ammouri, an Anaheim political consultant, recalls being told by elderly
business owners in the city's Little Arabia neighborhood when she asked for
political donations.
Muslims are also far younger on average than members of
other faiths (almost 20 years younger than the average Protestant), and many
are immigrants who have not yet become citizens.
Recently, however, an emerging generation of American-born
Muslims has begun flexing its political muscle, especially in regions of the
country, such as California, New York and the upper Midwest, with large Muslim
populations.
In California, home to roughly one million Muslims, the
heart of that emergence is in Orange County. Nine of the 28 recently elected
delegates to the state Democratic Party are from Orange County, where the
Muslim population has been estimated at around 200,000. It's not known what
percentage of California Muslims is registered to vote.
Orange County's prominence among Muslim political activists
is largely due to the work of Hussam Ayloush, who heads the Anaheim office of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Ayloush, who lives in Corona, said he had long been troubled
by what he termed his community's political "apathy." So last year he
embarked on an effort to recruit local Muslims to become Democratic Party
delegates.
Delegates are elected biannually in each of the state's 80
Assembly districts. They help shape party policy by endorsing candidates and
ballot measures and representing local interests at state conventions.
Ayloush told recruits that becoming a delegate was a
manageable first step toward greater political engagement.
"The more a community has political activists... the
better we are positioned to contribute toward the betterment of our society in
ways that are important for us," he said.
"There was a lot of skepticism" at first, Ayloush
added. And most of the recruits, among them two doctors, a teacher and a
lawyer, were new to politics.
So Ayloush, who had already served a term as a party
delegate, organized meetings and conference calls during which he explained how
to raise money and garner votes in the delegate election, held in January.
"There was a buzz in the community," he said.
And there was a buzz at the April convention when all the
new delegates elected in January showed up.
"We're starting to see the younger generation coming of
age," said Henry Vandermeir, who this year was elected chair of Orange
County's Democratic Party. "We (Democrats) feel we have the better message
for them to come over to us."
Roughly 85 percent of Muslims voted for Pres. Barack Obama
in last year's election, according to post-electing polling.
However, the alliance between Muslims and Democrats is
actually a recent phenomenon, the product of an unusually rapid turnaround in
American politics, said Louis Desipio, a political science professor at UC
Irvine.
Fifteen years ago Muslims "identified with
Republicans," Desipio said. A large majority of Muslims voted for George
W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election. And members of Bush's political team
made efforts to cultivate a network of high-income Muslim donors.
Muslims, many of whom are socially conservative small
business owners, doctors and engineers, appeared a natural fit for the GOP.
But that changed soon after Sept. 11. In the months and
years following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., and as
America went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, American Muslims felt unfairly
demonized by Republican politicians. Republican support of Israel and
opposition to immigration reform further alienated voters.
Meanwhile, "Democrats realized that by being the party
of inclusiveness in today's California they win," said Desipio.
Ammouri, the Anaheim political consultant, said she grew up
in Modesto as part of a Republican household of Palestinian Americans.
In 2000, when she was 13, her grandfather took her to hear
vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney speak. Then the two of them went to
Republican Party headquarters to volunteer at a phone bank. The local party
gave her a college scholarship.
"Now I'm not a Republican at all," Ammouri said.
Neither are her parents.
"It's just gotten more radically right," she said.
"And I feel like they've excluded me as an Arab American, as a Muslim
American and as a woman. So many Republican officials talk about Muslims in a
way I couldn't agree with."
Al-Dabbagh said that even though Muslims share a common
faith, their political goals vary, reflecting the community's socio-economic
diversity and various national origins.
Foreign policy is one area of near-universal agreement.
Muslims want greater support for Palestinians, an end to drone strikes on
civilians and greater support for rebels in Syria's civil war.
But those are all long-range goals, Al-Dabbagh said. For
now, it's enough that Muslims are getting involved and laying the groundwork to
run for office and become a stronger presence in state politics.
"We want to make sure our voice is heard," he
said.
Contact the writer: jhinch@ocregister or on Twitter
@jimkhinch
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